


feels like home

by drivingmishcrazy



Series: Beautifully Blended [1]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Children of Characters, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Family Fluff, Tamily, implied past Demily, meeting your girlfriends daughter is scary, precocious little girls rule the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:29:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29082417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drivingmishcrazy/pseuds/drivingmishcrazy
Summary: Tara Lewis has interviewed hundreds of serial killers in her lifetime, but meeting her girlfriend’s daughter might just be the scariest thing she’s ever done.
Relationships: Tara Lewis/Emily Prentiss
Series: Beautifully Blended [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2133705
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	feels like home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [unitchiefprentiss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unitchiefprentiss/gifts).



> thanks to unitchiefprentiss for putting up with me asking for feedback and trying to make sure that I didn’t make this clever little girl sound TOO grown up!

Tara put the car in park and killed the engine but she didn’t move to take off her seatbelt just yet. Instead, she clutched the steering wheel in a death grip. Emily’s hand reached over to cover hers. Tara turned to face the woman she loved, dark brown eyes that were soft and reassuring stared back at her. Tara felt Emily’s hand gently squeezing hers.

“It’s gonna be okay.” Emily said. “She’s going to  _ love  _ you, Tara. I can feel it.”

“You don’t know that.” Tara cleared her throat. “You said yourself that she  _ hated  _ Mark. And Morgan already warned me that she can get territorial.”

“She was still a toddler when Savannah came into her life.” Emily said. “You’d have been pretty skeptical too if the list of people you were comfortable around were your parents, grandma, and aunties. Besides, she already  _ knows  _ you!”

“She’s met me a handful of times.” Tara said. “And I highly doubt that Olivia will make the connection between the strange woman who kept feeding her cheese at her dad’s wedding and the strange woman who’s been dating her mom for the last six months.”

“I don’t know.” Emily said dryly. “Liv’s pretty serious about her cheese, that might work in your favor.”

Tara sighed. “I’m intimidated by a six year old.”

“She’s going to  _ love  _ you.” Emily said again, “I should know, I’m her mom and I love you. It’ll be fine.”

“If you say so.” Tara mumbled, still unconvinced. “Okay. Come on, let’s do this.”

They exited the car and walked to the door. Almost as soon as they entered the house, they were met by a severe looking Welsh woman, her hair pulled back into a bun. Emily had gone through her fair share of nannies, Olivia was a spirited little girl and needed the right balance of firmness and gentle guidance and Mrs Pryce was the one who had finally fit the bill. The older woman shook her head in exasperation.

“You’ve gotten back just in time.” She said. “That girl has been on pins and needles all morning waiting for you to come home, Ms Prentiss. Another half hour and I feared I would have had to chase her through the tri-state area looking for you!”

“Trust me, I’ve been trying to get here as fast as I could, Mrs Pryce.” Emily replied. “Thank you so much for trying to rein her in.”

“That’s what you pay me for, isn’t it?” Mrs Pryce returned. “Although I don’t think there’s much on this earth that’ll tame that child but time.”

Emily opened her mouth to say something else but was interrupted by the sounds of thumping upstairs and a door flying open. Seconds later, a flash of pink topped by curly hair came flying down the staircase and barreled into Emily and Tara. Olivia was taller than Tara had expected and though she had seen the little girl before, she had half-expected to see the chubby three year old she remembered, not this tall, lean little person who clung to Emily’s legs so tightly. At first glance, she looked so much like her father that Tara was convinced that Morgan had managed to clone himself, but then Olivia looked up and flashed a grin that was  _ so  _ Emily that Tara could see nothing else.

“Mamma!” Olivia practically cheered. She had no accent but the way she stressed certain sounds gave away that she had spent her formative years in a different country. In another six months, any trace of an accent would probably be gone. “You’re home!”

“I  _ am _ home, peanut!” Emily said with a warm smile and a fondness that left no doubt just how deeply she loved that little girl. “Oh, I missed you so much!”

The display was enough that even stern Mrs Pryce gave a small smile. “I’ll leave you to it.” She said and with a curt nod, the nanny took her leave. After Olivia had decided she had hugged her mother sufficiently, she disentangled herself from Emily and looked at Tara, seeming as though she was seeing her for the first time. A wide grin spread across the girl’s face.

“Are you her?” She asked. “Are you Mamma’s special friend? I know what it means, you know.”

“Oh yeah?” Tara bit back a smile. The girl was precocious, to say the least. She got to the point, anyway, no time for pleasantries in  _ her  _ world.

“It means you’re her girlfriend.” Olivia said nonchalantly. “Like Daddy and Savannah before they got married. Mamma  _ told  _ me you were at their wedding but I was too little to remember it.”

“Well, you’re right.” Tara said. “I  _ was  _ there and I  _ am  _ your mom’s girlfriend. Is that okay with you?”

Olivia shrugged. “Yeah, why not?”

Tara and Emily exchanged a look. “I don’t know.” Tara said. “Some kids are and some kids aren’t. You’ve had your mom all to yourself for a long time and it can be a big change. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“It’s not really that different from Daddy and Savannah.” Olivia rolled her eyes as if the fact should be obvious. “Is that why you were so scared, Mamma? I asked Mrs Pryce and she said that grown ups care more about stuff than kids do.”

Emily turned bright red. “I just wanted you to know that I-  _ we  _ care about your feelings, Olivia.”

“I know  _ that,  _ Mamma!” Olivia said. “I’m not stupid!” There it was again,  _ styoo-pid  _ instead of  _ stoo-pid _ . Olivia turned to Tara and added, “I’m the fastest reader in my class and Ms Wilson said if Mamma agrees that I can skip second grade next year and go to third instead!”

“That’s really cool!” Tara smiled. “I can tell that you’re really really smart, and I just met you.”

Olivia smiled back, then her face grew serious. “You love my Mamma, don’t you?”

Tara shot a glance at Emily, thrown by such a straightforward question from the small girl. They had said ‘I love you’ to one another in private but agreed beforehand that they would hold off on saying the words in front of Olivia so as to not completely overwhelm her with change. Yet the girl seemed to be extremely perceptive, whether it was the byproduct of being raised by profilers or that the way Tara and Emily felt about each other was obvious or perhaps just a childlike assumption that because they were together they must be in love, Olivia had caught on quickly and Tara was unwilling to lie to the child.

“I do.” Tara said. “I love her very much. Is that alright?”

“Yeah, it’s alright!” Olivia’s face brightened. “I was just checking! I like you more than I liked Mark, he smelled funny. Do you want to see my drawing?”

The girl’s acceptance melted Tara’s heart more than she wanted to admit. “I would love to.”

Emily looked stunned as her daughter took Tara by the hand and led them both upstairs to her room where she had clearly been very busy. Crayons and paper covered the tiny desk in the corner of the girl’s room and Olivia showed them one brightly colored drawing after another, explaining in detail how they were meant to illustrate a story she had made up in her head, showing them a spiral notebook with pages of large, slanted letters. Tara found herself impressed with Olivia’s handiwork, there were fewer misspelled words than she would have expected from a first grader and even though her penmanship was clearly still very much a work in progress, the girl proved to be as imaginative as she was intelligent.

“This is the queen.” Olivia explained. “She commands all of the animals to protect her people, and this is the warrior. They fall in love but they don’t know that yet.”

“Wow.” Tara replied. “You’re quite the storyteller.”

“I want to be a writer when I grow up.” Olivia said simply. “Daddy says I would make a good lawyer because I’m good at arguing but it sounds boring.”

Emily rolled her eyes at the statement, but she couldn’t hide her smile. She was clearly very proud of her young daughter, and with good reason. Tara listened patiently to Olivia, wanting to communicate without words that she considered the child’s words, thoughts, and feelings every bit as important and valuable as any adults. Olivia begged Emily to let Tara stay for dinner and Emily didn’t take much convincing. In the end, Olivia fell asleep wedged between Tara and Emily on the couch just thirty minutes into her favorite movie and the fact that it was one about an impossibly bright little girl with special powers struck Tara as fitting. Tara helped Emily get her daughter to bed and her heart swelled when she witnessed how tenderly Emily kissed Olivia on the forehead and stroked her hair. The love that she saw in Emily’s eyes only strengthened hers tenfold and Tara found herself marveling at how she had gotten so lucky. When the couple crept back down the stairs into the living room, Emily flashed her a grin.

“See?” She said. “I  _ told  _ you that you had nothing to worry about. Liv is already  _ quite  _ taken with you.”

Tara smiled. “The feeling’s mutual.” She said. “You have a pretty special little girl on your hands.”

“Trust me, I know.” Emily laughed. “I know every parent says this but from the moment the nurse put that wiggly little ball of emotions on my chest, I knew that Olivia was just...different…”

“And she is.” Tara said. “In the best way possible. She reminds me a lot of you, actually.”

Emily smiled wide and pink tinged her cheeks. Then her expression softened as she pulled Tara close and kissed her full on the lips.

“Thank you for doing this.” She said. “I know how nervous you were but it meant a lot to me.”

“Emily, I get it.” Tara replied. “Olivia is your whole world and I want you  _ and  _ her to be a part of mine. I was always going to think she hung the moon and she managed to be even more amazing than I imagined. I just want her to feel comfortable and safe around me.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.” Emily said in a low voice. “I mean the way you were with her- I knew you were good with kids but...it’s easy to tell when someone is forcing it and you looked so  _ natural  _ with Olivia, the way you responded...you can’t fake it.”

“Well, I _am_ planning to stick around for the foreseeable future.” Tara said. She smiled. “And the whole evil stepmother vibe is _so_ not my thing.”

Emily laughed and kissed Tara again. She paused, gazing into Tara’s eyes and Tara felt her stomach do flips the same way it had every day since the first time Emily had looked at her like that.

“It’s late.” Tara said, clearing her throat. “I should probably head out and let you get some sleep.”

Emily bit her bottom lip. “Or you could stay the night?”

The suggestion took Tara by surprise. She had never been invited to spend the night when Olivia hadn’t been away visiting Derek and even on such occasions it had more often happened that Emily would sleep over at Tara’s. She had assumed that eventually they would progress to overnight visits as Olivia acclimated to Tara being in her life but the abrupt change had her arching her eyebrows.

“Are you sure?” Tara asked. “I don’t want to throw too much at Olivia too soon and overwhelm her.”

“I know.” Emily said. “And if I thought it would upset her I wouldn’t ask but I think it might be okay- unless you don’t want to, which I would  _ totally  _ understand-“ 

“I want to.” Tara said with a reassuring smile. “Let me just grab a change of clothes out of my go-bag.”

Emily returned her smile. “Okay.”

They spent the night in each other’s arms and despite her earlier misgivings, Tara couldn’t deny how good, how  _ right  _ it felt to have Emily’s face buried in the crook of her neck, snoring softly, her eyelashes tickling when they fluttered in her sleep. Tara felt like she was finally where she belonged after years of searching and fighting not to give up hope that such a place actually existed for her. They got up before Olivia, not wanting to push their luck and risk the barrage of questions that would surely have come if the child had found them sleeping in the same bed,  _ that  _ conversation could be saved for another day. By the time Olivia skipped into the kitchen looking fresh as a daisy and pleasantly surprised that her new friend was joining her and Emily for breakfast, Tara had made chocolate chip pancakes, Emily’s favorite and as it turned out, Olivia’s favorite too. Olivia chattered happily as she ate, filling Tara in on an upcoming field trip that she was excited about and Tara listened with rapt attention, hanging on the first grader’s every word. Olivia was on her second helping when Tara caught Emily’s eye and saw that she was close to tears though her expression was that of a woman who had never known such joy and love in her life. Tara reached over and squeezed Emily’s hand the way Emily had done to her the day before. Emily gave Tara a wide, watery smile and leaned in to kiss her. Olivia grinned and shook her head as if the behavior of adults was beyond her and that was all. The three would settle into the morning like you would an old and comfortable sweater, and Tara knew the that she was home.


End file.
